This film definitely had a great premise to work with, but it tried too hard to please the curious minds of its intended audience. Younger's idea of exploring a relationship of an older woman with a younger man was definitely refreshing (well, aside from _Harold and Maude_) and his choice of having the story unfold in New York only made it more interesting. With the artsy profession of Rafi and the perpetual conflicts surrounding Dave's Jewish background, these topics could only be properly explored with a diverse and cosmopolitan setting like New York. The film definitely allows the audience to explore different parts of city life and integrates the city mindset into its storyline, which being a city mouse, I definitely appreciated. My favorite example would be when Rafi points out that when one lives in Manhattan, a few hundred square feet of one's apartment is all one has.
Although this film is promoted for its sophisticated storyline, Meryl Streep adds the only charisma and sophistication to the entire film. Streep definitely outshines Uma Thurman and Bryan Greenberg in this film. In fact, she is the only person carrying it. Her acting is superb as always, and she delivers her lines with impeccable timing and emotion. Thurman and Greenberg, on the other hand, appear like two awkward teenagers throughout the film. They had zero chemistry, and Greenberg's acting fed nothing to Thurman for her to work off of. Greenburg, despite his dashing, cute puppy looks, could not carry the leading man role because he seemed afraid to take the reigns. His lines would be delivered the way high school theater rehearsal lines were delivered -- nearly emotionless and confused in intonation. But Thurman wasn't better off anyway; it seemed like she was trying to take hold of her role throughout the entire film but she just couldn't get it right for some reason. Maybe the concept of the film was just too hard for her to work with, or maybe the script itself just gave her very little to begin with. Nonetheless, Rafi and Dave's dialog is trite, cliché, and very middle school at times. Everything they said to each other seemed expected of them and didn't add any new insights to their intellect, emotional maturity, or the maturity of the relationship. You could never really understand why the two were together besides the excitement from the age difference and the sexual exploration. Their romance unfolds in the most obvious and least charming fashion. (i.e. From awkward glances at each other while waiting in line for movie tickets with their respective dates to a "nervewrecking" scene of Dave struggling to call Rafi after looking her up in the phone book.) The dates they go on seem unrealistic for a 37-year-old divorcée. (i.e. Underground rap clubs.) All of the romance that is supposed to touch you and bring you closer to the characters really just pushes you away because the scenes presented are so hard to swallow.
And you can't help but notice that their relationship is based on a large part on sex, which doesn't add any dimension to the characters or the story. Perhaps this is why it is so hard to swallow anything when either Rafi and Dave claim that they love each other. Because you can't help but think that they're merely infatuated with each other and this new experience and that it's not really love at all. Despite the fact that Rafi insists to her therapist/Dave's mom that she is serious about this relationship, it is hard to believe because you see nothing that Rafi and Dave have in common besides art and even that link is iffy and seems tacked on just to draw some connection between them. Younger never gives the characters real dimension or qualities that would make the audience draw towards them, so when the film ends, you don't feel the connection with the characters that is needed for the ending to be felt the way Younger wants it to be felt. In other words, as you walk out of the theatre, you don't really care about Rafi and Dave just like the way you don't really care about two card-board cut outs.
Younger seems to focus too much on the topics that come to people easily when thinking about relationships with such a great age difference, such as one person who wants a baby while the other person wants the newest X-Box game, etc.. The most cliché topics are touched on throughout the film, like being carded when buying liquor, playing video games instead of having sex, or being old enough to be his mother. If you add these topics and a few Jewish jokes here and there, you've got yourself _Prime_ wrapped neatly in a box. Despite the film having its fair share of funny moments and tasteful humor, Younger definitely could have explored this relationship on a deeper level and gave Thurman and Greenberg a little more to work with in terms of character development and dialogue. The failure to do this ultimately spoiled a perfectly good premise for a film. Maybe better luck next time. And hopefully the next role Uma picks will have a little more spice to it as it is always pleasant to see her on-screen, and she usually has better judgment.